PRINCESS CRUISES WEB SITE GENERATES EXTRAORDINARY RESPONSE

5th May 1999

One month after sailing onto the Internet with the cruise industry’s largest web site, Princess Cruises has web surfers glued to their computers. Approximately 7,000 visitors each day are logging on for an average of 25 minutes each—more than twice the average time spent on most sites, according to industry figures.

“We are extremely pleased that the response tour our site has been so positive,” said Rick James, Princess’ senior vice president of customer service and sales. “Consumers are viewing nearly 90,000 pages per day, which we understand are phenomenal numbers.”

The most popular feature has been the first-ever live BridgeCam at sea, with more than 30,000 views a day. A camera positioned on the bridge of Grand Princess, the line’s new 109,000-ton ship which is the largest cruise vessel in the world, gives site visitors a live view of the scenery as seen from the bridge, whether the ship is at sea or in port. The site updates the image every 60 seconds.

In just one week, nearly 4,300 people searched for a travel agent on the site. This unique agent-oriented feature enables potential customers to search for the travel agent nearest them and locate the agent’s office on a detailed local area street map. In the first week alone, nearly 11,000 maps of travel agent locations were drawn.

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Princess’ site incorporates the largest selection of 360 IPIX photos available on any cruise line site, enabling viewers to tour Princess’ new Grand Class ships. More than 2,713 of these IPIX files have been viewed each day, allowing site visitors to preview cabins, step out on one of the private balconies or tour the colorful children’s facilities. The feature has generated record-breaking referrals to the IPIX company’s web site to download the special photo viewer needed to see the photos.

Quite a few people have been attracted to the “Cool Stuff” section. More than 1,600 people have downloaded the Princess screen saver and visitors have sent more than 4,000 electronic post cards.

Visitors to www.princess.com can access a wealth of information about Princess’ ships, on board experience, itineraries and destinations. The most popular section has been the fleet listings where users can access information about each Princess ship. Other popular features include the destinations section—with most people logging on to plan trips to the Caribbean. Visitors have used the cruise planner more than 30,000 times to plan their cruise and nearly 2,500 itineraries are viewed daily.
Other unusual features include a special video clip of more than 1,000 couples renewing their wedding vows which took place this past Valentine’s Day aboard Grand Princess, and “May We Suggest” recommendations from Princess captains, cruise directors and past passengers about their favorite ships and ports of call.